You've probably already heard that Henry Louis Gates Jr., a Harvard professor, was arrested last Thursday, when he forced his way through a jammed front door.

A neighbor called the cops, saying that two black men were trying to break into the house. By the time a police officer arrived, Gates was inside his own home. The officer demanded that Gates identify himself; Gates showed him a driver's license and his Harvard identification. Gates then asked to see the cop's identification and that's when the trouble arose. The officer called for backup, and with the assistance of five other policemen, arrested Gates for disorderly conduct in his own home.

Even if one assumes that Gates behavior was disorderly, ought one not be allowed to engage in disorderly conduct in his own home? A Massachusetts court found, in the 1978 case of Commonwealth v. Templeman, For the defendant to be found guilty, his (her) actions must have been reasonably likely to affect the public, that is, persons in a place to which the public or a substantial group has access.

Pennsylvania law (027 Pa Code 42.21) says, "Police officers shall be prepared to display their official identification upon request. Police officers shall honor these requests when the request is reasonable and the police officer’s safety has been ensured." Uh, when would a request not be reasonable? If a police officer declines to display his identification, are you entitled to assume that he's not really a police officer, and thus disregard his orders?

Forced To Drive Drunk?

22-year old Travis Peterson of Dixon, IL decided after a Dave Matthews concert that he wasn't sober enough to be driving, so he simply crawled into his car and went to sleep. A state trooper says he banged on Peterson's window, then turned on his lights and siren to wake him up. According to Peterson, the trooper said the lot was being cleared, and ordered him to leave. The cop claims he never told Peterson to drive, which raises the question, so why go to such efforts to disturb his sleep? He left, only to have another state trooper arrest him for drunk driving.

The Walworth County judge said that Peterson was not entrapped, but the 2nd District Court of Appeals disagreed, overturning the conviction and praising Peterson for his responsible behavior.

Housing While Black

In discussing the Gates case on a cable news channel, Michael Eric Dyson, a Georgetown professor with a syndicated talk radio show, said that the police "profiled" Gates because he was black, and arrested him because he was an "uppity negro". Dyson, himself a black man, says that in 1986, he was pulled over by a cop for drunk driving and asked to identify himself. Dyson says he was a teetotaller, and told the patrolman that he was a Baptist minister and a doctoral candidate at Princeton. The cop replied, 'Yeah, and I'm President of the United States."

Dyson says we now appear to have a new category for harassment - housing while black - and asserts that things like this happened to the white community, that whites wouldn't stand for it. I have no doubt that Dyson believes that, but it's demonstrably not true. Part of the reason race relations in this country haven't improved faster is that having been subjected to so many indignities that are racial in origin, blacks may not realize that cops are assholes to everyone.

I'm not asserting that all cops are colorblind; they aren't. To some cops, we are all niggers, while to others, there are greater and lesser niggers.

The Coprolalia Arrest

A few years ago, a man with Tourette's Syndrome was arrested locally. Tourette's Syndrome is a disorder of tics in most cases, but this man exhibited coprolalia, the repeated compulsive/obsessive use of words that often are words that cause offense. He was walking down one side of the street in one direction, while a new resident, reportedly a strikingly attractive woman, was walking down the other side of the street in the other direction. The guy noticed the woman and said "nigger, nigger, nigger", more speaking to himself than to anyone else, according to witnesses.

She took offense, as you might imagine. She complained to police, who were understandably sympathetic to her, and they arrested the man under a law that appears, at least to me, patently unconstitutional. I felt sorry for her, but I felt even sorrier for him. I've known adults with Tourette's, and lived for a while with a woman whose son had the problem. In situations where there is little stress, there is little problem. They can suppress that behavior for a while, but the suppression itself is highly stressful, and eventually, behavior erupts that is extreme in nature.

As a gimp, I react in horror to the notion that I might have instead become a quadriplegic in that . auto collision. I sounds so much more horrifying to be trapped in a body that's not immobile, but is behaving in erratic and uncontrollable ways that are highly offensive to others. It's bad enough when we have to live with shame that we've misbehaved, but many people with Tourette's Syndrome are burdened with shame for something that isn't their fault.

That Awful Word

The funny thing, though, is considering what it actually means when John calls Jack a nigger. John is categorizing Jack as a black man. That's not an insult unless you consider there to be something wrong with being a black man. Do people get insulted if you accuse them of having brown eyes or having two legs? No. They also don't get insulted if you call them a cook, or an artist, or a bicyclist, either, and unlike being black, or having brown eyes, or having two legs, those are things one chooses to become.

On the other hand, John is categorizing himself as a rather despicable character.

I've said before, and I'll continue to say it: in the 1960s, when they resurrected John Sweat Rock's 1858 notion that "Black is Beautiful", they should have embraced the n-word at the same time. It's only a hurtful insult if you allow it to be, and by embracing the word and making it as socially-acceptable as "Baptist" or "Korean" or "watchmaker", it would have greatly annoyed and inconvenienced bigots, who would have been robbed of their favorite hurtful word.

Of course, they could always come up with a new hurtful word for the racial and ethnic groups they dislike. For instance, they could call them "cops". The fact that there are many police officers who are trying to do a good job is indisputable - but when they tolerate misbehavior by other officers. They're in the same position as the honest and ethical lawyer: it's a shame that all lawyers look bad because of the bad acts of a mere 97 or 98 out of 100.

Other Bloggers On Related Topics:
- Black Is Beautiful - Dave Matthews - Harvard - Henry Louis Gates - John Sweat Rock - Massachusetts - Michael Eric Dyson - N-word - police - Tourette's Syndrome - Travis Peterson